We made it back to Barcelona on three different airlines and with three different routings…Eitan from Northern California, Ruth from Cape Town via Dubai, and Andrew and I also from Cape Town via Istanbul. It took a lot of logistics on Andrew’s part as amateur travel agent, but we all actually arrived in Barcelona within 2 hours of each other. Equally tired after umpteen hours of flying, it did feel great to be back home. As usual, our apartment is now filled with not only our own traveling daughter, but two of her friends – one whom she met while in South Africa, and the other a childhood friend who will be studying in Madrid in the Fall. Of course Eitan is here too, but he will be going to school in Connecticut in the Fall…so we will go from a full house to a very quiet empty nest before we know it!
I can tell you that I have very, very mixed emotions about this pending change in our daily lives. It has taken some getting used to having Ari all the way in Seattle and really quite the captain of his own fate…and Ruth so quickly evolving into a worldly woman with amazing aspirations we have no doubt but that she will successfully fulfill, traveling all over the world and living at college in North Carolina. If it weren´t for Skype I don’t think this scattered configuration would be palatable for me. And now we will be taking Eitan to The East Coast in September to start his first real adventure as a fairly independent young man – at the boarding school Andrew attended many years ago. And Andrew and I will have Barcelona to ourselves – so to speak.
This is the perfect bittersweet scenario. On one hand, as parents we could not ask for any better outcome for our offspring than them feeling confident and ready to fly…on the other hand, I miss the two older ones daily and now anticipate the old story of walking by Eitan’s room here in Spain and doing the motherly weeping thing once he is moved into his Avon dorm room and we are sending kisses virtually. On the one hand, Andrew and I will have the freedom to work uninterrupted and on our own strange schedules, as well as be able to choose weekend jaunts that we’d rather do without always factoring in whether the troops will want to come along…on the other hand, I already mourn the inevitable of family – whole nuclear family – vacations and gatherings becoming more and more of a test of patience and wills to make them happen as often as my heart will want them to. We already are finding that it takes almost an act of Congress to gather us all anywhere – and there is added complexity when we want to all end up where our extended family is as well. And so it goes.
August is already filled with new expat families coming to Barcelona and us paying it forward to pass on tips and tricks that helped us get our sea legs here…family friends passing through…Andrew and I each ramping up our full time gigs to keep the boat afloat…getting ready for a week long trip to northern Italy to stay with the family of a business associate of Andrew’s who graciously insisted we come stay, eat and be merry (sooo excited about this!)…stay up on Ari´s race running schedule and attempting to show up for the major ones as his biggest fans…helping Ruth gear back up for her junior year at UNCC and make some pivotal decisions about where to spend her leadership energies amidst a very full academic load and international experience aspirations…and readying Eitan for his big transition to becoming an “Avon Boy”. This is normal? I guess it is for us.
Living La Vida Loca 